The presiding
judge and assistant presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday
gave the most detailed information to date regarding the court’s plan to close
56 courtrooms in order to meet its share of statewide judicial branch budget
cuts.

Speaking to
reporters at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse downtown, Presiding Judge Lee Edmon
and Assistant Presiding Judge David Wesley reiterated what had already been
made public—the court will, between now and June 30, be reducing its staff by
nearly 350 workers, closing 56 courtrooms, reducing its use of court reporters
and eliminating the Informal Juvenile Traffic Courts.

Court-employed
reporters will no longer be available to report civil trials after May 15,
Edmon said, although trials in progress as of that date will not be affected.
Reporters in law-and-motion courts will be available only on a limited basis
after June 18, she said.

Still a Struggle

While the court
has already made permanent changes that cut its spending by $70 million
annually, the restructuring of the court will save another $30 million, as the
court struggles to meet its share of budget cuts that have been imposed on
trial courts statewide.

“This is a very
sad day for our court and county,” Edmon said. “We will lose dedicated court
employees, some who have been here over 30 years.”

The situation
could get worse, she said. Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal includes $125
million in “trigger cuts” to the courts, $30 million of which would have to be
absorbed by the Los Angeles Superior Court unless an initiative increasing
taxes is approved in November. And even if the trigger cuts do not take effect,
the court’s reduced spending level will represent its “new baseline,” Edmon
said.

Under the plan,
some of the 56 courtrooms would be physically shuttered, while others may be
used for activities not requiring staff assistance, such as settlement
conferences, the presiding judge explained. Some judicial officers who now have
fully staffed courtrooms will be moved to settlement duty.

The changes will
affect virtually every type of case at every court facility in the county, with
24 criminal courts among the 56.

Edmon
acknowledged that the courts will still have to meet statutory mandates that
require that criminal cases be given priority over civil, and that cases go to
trial within strict deadlines. “We will have to monitor the situation
carefully,” she said.

At the Foltz
Criminal Justice Center, for example, four misdemeanor and preliminary hearing
courtrooms will close, along with a complex trial department in which Judge
Lance Ito sits.

Ito, the court’s
best-known judge since his handling of the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial, will become
a “utility player” for the court, Wesley said, borrowing the baseball term for
someone who can fill in at a variety of positions. Edmon said the court would
be borrowing on Ito’s many years of criminal law experience to handle a wide
assortment of matters.

Central District Civil

Four other
courtrooms hearing misdemeanors and infractions in the court’s Central District
will be closed under the plan, one each in East Los Angeles, Metropolitan
Court, Hollywood, and Central Arraignment Court.

At Mosk, two
general civil and one limited civil courtrooms—Departments 19,39, and 44—will
be closed, along with Dept. 1A, which hears a variety of civil matters.

Department 12,
which grants writs of attachment, will also close. Matters now heard in that
department will go to the individual calendar judges to whom the underlying
cases have been assigned.

Judge Luis
Lavin, who now sits in that department, will become the court’s third Writs and
Receivers judge. But the three judges will share two staffs, Edmon explained.

Also slated for
closure is Department 97, which hears various civil matters, including unlawful
detainers and small claims. The court sent out a notice Monday that Judge
Robert Schuit would be moving from that department to Sylmar Juvenile Court as
of April 30.

Finally, three
civil long cause courts, all presided over by former presiding judges, will be
consolidated into two.

In other moves,
as indicated on a chart distributed yesterday:

•The domestic violence court, Dept. 8,
will close. A court spokesman said a new system, in which three commissioners
would share responsibility for domestic violence restraining orders and
injunctions against civil harassment, would be implemented.

One regular
family law department will also close;

•One probate court will close;

•As previously reported by the MetNews,
four juvenile delinquency courtrooms—one each in Eastlake, Inglewood, Sylmar,
and Pomona—will close;

•One criminal and two civil courts at
Pomona South will close, along with one civil court at Pomona North. The court
previously announced that the Pomona North limited civil caseload is being
moved to West Covina;

•One court that hears small claims,
unlawful detainers, and civil harassment cases at the Antelope Valley
courthouse will be closed;

•A civil court in Pasadena and a
misdemeanor court in Alhambra, both in the Northeast District, will close;

•A limited civil court in Glendale and a
family law court in Burbank will close. The family law caseload in Burbank will
shift to Glendale;

•Three courts will close in the North
Valley District—civil courts in Chatsworth and Santa Clarita and a criminal
court in San Fernando. Judge David Stuart, whose Chatsworth courtroom is the
one slated for closure, is slated to move to San Fernando May 1;

•Three courts in Long Beach, including
that of retiring Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani, will close;

•Three courts in the South Central
District will close;

•Four courts in the Southeast
District—one each in Bellflower, Downey, Norwalk, and Whittier will close. The Downey
limited civil caseload will be moved to Bellflower, which is losing a
misdemeanor court;

•Three Southwest District courts, two in
Torrance and one in Inglewood, will close;

•Four West District courts—one each at
the Santa Monica, Airport, Beverly Hills and Malibu courthouses—will close. The
Airport courtroom is the one formerly presided over by Judge Jacquelyn Connor,
who retired.

The court is
encouraging attorneys whose cases may be affected to check the “Notice to
Attorneys” section of its website.